Blackout Beta Brought Death By Basketballs And Zombies

Black Ops 4’s Blackout mode’s week-long beta just ended, and players were able to score some pretty impressive or unique battle royale wins.

Available from September 10-17, Call of Duty’s first leap into the battle royale genre was a success with the community. Blackout delivered Call of Duty’s over-the-top action style, and the beta ran like a much smoother successor to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

Blackout hosted 80-88 players for majority of the week, but the count was eventually upped to 100 on September 17 for a brief beta extension. Players dove down onto the Blackout map crafted from popular locations within Treyarch’s Black Ops series, fighting for a prestigious Hunger Games style victory.

Here are some Blackout moments of sweet shots and non-conventional battle royale victory kills:

basketball win #CODTopPlays #Blackout @Treyarch @CallofDuty @Bank_BeeAT pic.twitter.com/nLYxgx9ESA

— すずめ???? (@ayzsuzume) September 14, 2018

On Twitter, “Ayzsuzume” tweeted a clip of channeling their inner Kobe for a basketball victory.

A basketball can be found and equipped in the game, allowing players to shoot hoops on the basketball court on the Estates map. Treyarch’s post-beta stats have revealed that 123 people were eliminated by a basketball. In this video, you can watch a simple basketball toss clutch the win.

I see your sniper clips and raise you to thishttps://t.co/U9vkM2ALvb pic.twitter.com/nfjwLz352f

— Mido (@MidoMVP) September 12, 2018

Throwing axe kills are a pretty popular way of getting a flashy victory kill, and MidoMVP pulls off one hell of a throw to win a duo match.

CLEAN Paladin Snipe shots for the WIN pic.twitter.com/3whE29obKS

— Ninja (@Ninja) September 15, 2018

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins even took some time away from Fortnite to get hands-on with Blackout. He tweeted a video with a throwing axe victory, and he helped win a duo match with some pretty sick shots with the Paladin sniper rifle, which is a powerful weapon with or without use of a scope attachment.

Youtuber Josh On TV makes perfect use of the grappling gun, flying through the storm towards his opponent and securing the final kill with the ray gun.

Winning a battle royale match usually involves killing opponents, but in rare cases, Blackout victories came from lucky accidents or meddling zombies. Reddit user RealCarFacts posted a picture of their solo win with zero kills earned, thanking zombies for the victory.

No matter the strategy, working towards a victory in Blackout was often an adrenaline rush experience filled with epic helicopter snipes, ATV hit-and-runs, parachute fails, and desperate rounds of flashbangs and fisticuffs.

The beta has sadly ended, but we’re less than one month away from release day. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launches on October 12 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.